Tag Archives | Pluto

Earlier in the year, an essay of mine ended up being featured in a compendium of psychedelic writing compiled by Graham Hancock. It’s an incredibly worthwhile read that I recommend checking out to anyone (The Divine Spark, which you can pick up here). I could actually go on and on about the thing. In particular, Graham’s stories of dealing with dark ayahuasca entities and the piece about the prevailing concept of the holy trinity throughout various mystical traditions (The Soul Cluster: Reconsideration of a Millenia Old Concept, if you’re curious). The funny thing about this is that I’m also an Occultist and if my work was featured in an Occult compilation, I probably wouldn’t even mention it to anyone. Man, what passes for the Occult these days is some seriously embarrassing bullshit. Monotheism won. They slandered the art of summoning your Holy Guardian Entities with a dark creepster veneer so effectively that it’s become an absolute fucking joke.… Read the rest

What an amazing time for space exploration. The picture of the solar system from my childhood is now complete, as seen in this great family portrait produced by Ben Gross, a research fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and distributed via twitter.

I love this image because it shows each world in close-up, using some of the latest pictures from space exploration. As we celebrate seeing Pluto for the first time, it’s remarkable to think that this completes a 50 year task.

It has been NASA that has provided the first close-up views of all these worlds. Here’s the rundown:

Mercury: Mariner 10 (1973)

Venus: Mariner 2 (1962)

Mars: Mariner 4 (1965)

Jupiter: Pioneer 10 (1973)

Saturn: Pioneer 11 (1979)

Uranus: Voyager 2 (1985)

Neptune: Voyager 2 (1989) and

Pluto: New Horizons (2015)

But science never stays still. When New Horizons left Earth in January 2006, Pluto was a planet.… Read the rest

If there’s still someone out there who thinks science and politics never mix, the story behind the Battle of Prague should change your mind.

Some have cast the debate that took place in the Czech capital during the summer of 2006 as a battle against American scientists who wanted to keep the only planet discovered by an American on an unreasonably high pedestal. On the other side of the argument, there are those who suspect that the rest of the world wanted to see Pluto demoted to punish America for its unpopular foreign policy.

But we’re not talking about that kind of politics. We’re not even talking about a battle between the fans and foes of Pluto per se. Instead of thinking in terms of Republicans versus Democrats, or Plutophiles versus Plutoclasts, you have to think in terms of planetary conservatives versus liberals — or, more accurately, dynamicists versus geophysicists.

The scoop:Mike Brown is a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an expert dwarf planet hunter, accredited with discovering over 100 minor bodies in the Kuiper belt. Dr. Brown is also very well known for his part in the re-classification of Pluto.

In this very special IM Interview, Dr. Brown takes some time out with space producer Ian O’Neill to discuss killing Pluto, hate mail and whether there’s a massive Planet X hiding near the Kuiper belt ready to strike Earth in 2012 (spoiler: Mike isn’t part of a global conspiracy to hide Nibiru). To keep up with his Kuiper belt adventures, follow Mike on Twitter: @plutokiller.

Mike Brown: Back from lunch. Ready for Planet X.

Ian O’Neill: Lol, sounds good!

Right, my first question has to be about Pluto. How much hate mail do you get since you killed the poor little dwarf planet?